IER News & blogs

These are critical times for career guidance and counselling in education. The implementation of up-to-date guidance and counselling in education must not be seen as something separated from educational reform. There is a critical tension between progressive and regressive tendencies in both education and careers work. The case for reform requires careful attention leading to innovative solutions.

Professor Paul Edwards will be joining IER as an Honorary Professor. His research career began with the study of workplace industrial relations and industrial conflict. He has subsequently studied new management practices in the workplace and managerial careers, both in the UK and in international comparison. Current research is focusing on small firms and their employment practices, with a particular emphasis on firms run by new migrant to the UK.

Co-edited by IER Director Chris Warhurst, a special issue of Work and Occupations has just been published on ‘Making Jobs Better’. It examines the different actors involved in trying to improve job quality – firms, governments, trade unions and community organisations.

A study by Anne Green, Neil Lee (LSE) and Paul Sissons (Coventry University) demonstrates that the sector which an individual works in has a significant impact on their pay, but that the level of local demand for labour is also important. The report is an output from an ESRC-funded project on ‘Harnessing Growth Sectors for Poverty Reduction’. It highlights that low pay is a key feature of the accommodation/food services, residential care, wholesale/retail, and the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors. Three of these sectors (accommodation / food services, residential care, wholesale and retail) are likely to have the highest employment demand in the medium term. Hence policies are needed which focus on upgrading skills and developing career in order to help reduce low pay and in-work poverty. Find out more in the Growth Sectors report.

The Director of IER, Chris Warhurst, has been invited to address the annual Ofqual Conference on 28 February. This year’s conference focuses on vocational and technical education. Chris will talk about the first findings and policy implications from IER’s new VETrack tracking study of further education students and apprentices funded by the Edge Foundation. The report is now available, see:

Warhust, C., Yerushalmi, E and Poole, S. (2016). VETrack: Longitudinal Study of Learners in Vocational Education Wave 1 Report. Report for Edge Foundation and City & Guilds. London: Edge Foundation.